The Perfect 10
And here's instalment 9:
Passion
It's not an easy thing to explain, but one of the most important things we are looking for is that true, unquenchable desire in the writer to tell their story. You can tell very quickly when the writer really means it - and you can tell just as easily when they are just going through the motions. If you don't truly care about the story you are telling, then why should we? Of course, passionately believing in your story is unfortunately not going to make the script work all by itself - but I think it's an indispensable part of why we get excited about any given writer.
But what do I mean by 'passion'? Well, I mean: does your idea and story keep you up at night? Have the characters and their stories really got under your skin? And have you got under theirs? Do you feel compelled to write? Does it feel like your story is already writing itself in your head without you putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard? Do you believe your take on an idea has never quite been seen before and needs to be seen by an audience? If you don't feel any of these things, then you need to ask yourself whether it's worth persisting with an idea.
What I also mean is: don't try to be expedient. An extremely common question we hear is: what do you want, what are you looking for? What we're looking for is a great writer who does the kinds of things that I've been exploring in these blog posts. What we're looking for is something we've never seen before. You can waste a lot of time and energy trying to write the kind of script that you think you ought to write because you believe/hope/assume it will get you to whatever next stage you want to be at. But you can't be this calculating. If a script is simply there to be expedient, then it's likely it will never really, truly impress anybody.
What I also mean is: don't try to second guess what people want. Because you will almost certainly get it wrong. If people in the industry were crystal clear about they want, then life would be so much easier - but it would also so much less interesting. The truth is, we are waiting to be hit between the eyes and in the solar plexus with something that genuinely surprises us. Because if it can surprise someone who is being constantly bombarded with ideas and scripts, then there's a decent chance it will surprise an audience.
And that is what we really, truly want.
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